What does it really cost?

I had a puzzling thing happen to me this morning.  I was reading (the always informative) Commuter News E-news on my phone while pumping gas ($3.11/g !!) and the first two headlines jumped out at me. 

The first article was a letter to the Post's Dr. Gridlock from a reader who complained that she and her husband could not "afford to take Metro" from Vienna to Judiciary Square on their combined $200k per year income. She suggested that, even though parking in the district cost them $230 per month, it was still much cheaper for them to drive than to take public transit.

The second article, also from Dr. Gridlock (Commuters Can Go Lean), praised Arlington's CommuterPage and Car-Free Diet campaign for helping to bring to light the true cost of commuting options.

I couldn't imagine a greater contrast and I wondered: how much does the letter writer from Vienna really pay to drive to work and how much would it cost for her (and her spouse) to take Metro instead?

I thought a bit about this in the car and later, back at my desk, I tried a couple back-of-the-envelope calculations and couldn't get the numbers to come out in favor of the car.  Deciding I might be doing something wrong, I went to Google for some help.  My search lead me back (once again) to the CommuterPage where the Commuting Cost Calculator helped me run a number of scenarios.

Now, I'm not going to say that I came up with a definitive result for Dr. Gridlock's letter writer.  Everyone's circumstances are different and there may be other costs involved to these commuters than what I plugged in -- including whether they think the savings are 'worth it'.  But no matter what I tried, I couldn't find a reasonable set of numbers that made it cheaper to drive than take Metro.  Public transit was cheaper up to round-trip costs of about $30 and/or much higher mileage than I'm getting in my new Mazda.

So, let's hear it.  Tell me what I'm doing wrong?

_____________________
Kevin Beekman lives in Alexandria, VA

Comments

[Brian]

TheGreenMiles - it's free to drive on I-66 provided you're HOV inside the beltway during rush hour. This is a substantial impediment that most other jurisdictions don't have. Think about it - does NYC have roads that you can't drive on as a single passenger auto, no matter at what price?

RichardLayman - this is the root of the difference in calculations. Most - this site's included - calculators which are sponsored by green or mass transit friendly sites will factor in your total automobile cost in the price comparison. This assumes that if you were able to ditch your car for the work commutes, you wouldn't have a car at all. While this is true for some people, it isn't true for most. Therefore these calculators greatly inflate the costs associated with using a car to commute, where they really should be just incorporating the incremental increase in upkeep required to take an already existing vehicle and use it to commute.

Love my Omniride, though.

[Richard Layman]

As long as the cost of the vehicle is considered a sunk cost, and not amortized daily, there are many instances where Metro costs more, especially when people don't have to pay the market value of parking.

[TheGreenMiles]

It kills me that people have to pay to get on Metro, but it's free to drive on I66. There's a toll for every bridge or tunnel to get into Manhattan from Jersey. Why isn't there a toll at every bridge over the Potomac?

[Brian]

I can get as close as you'll find.

I live in Manassas near the Battlefield, work in Ballston. Driving to work, without stopping and taking Metro at the Vienna station, costs/takes 48 miles roundtrip, which for my Honda Civic is about 1.5 gallons, or about $4.40. (Manassas is currently holding at $2.80 for gas, not $3.11, but we'll even it out at $3 for convenience). The parking garage for my company is a company-sponsored $48/mo. This is a pre-tax expense, so the actual cost is about $40. This means that given 20 working days in a month, my daily cost to drive to work, minus wear and tear on the vehicle, is $6.40 per day. Add in $1.10/day for oil changes and wear and tear - minimal on a Honda Civic - and we're at $7.50/day.

Second choice is to drive to the Metro station is take Metro from Vienna to Ballston. Driving costs decrease to 30 miles roundtrip, or roughly $2.70 daily. Parking at Vienna is $3.75 daily. Metro costs from Vienna to Ballston is $5.20 rountrip daily, assuming we're travelling during normal rush hours. We still need to enter in a (lower) wear and tear amount for the portion driven to Metro - we'll say 85 cents/day. That makes the commute $12.50 per day.

I have workplace benefits that pays for $100 of Metro each month as a tax-free benefit, which works out to be $5 at 20 days per month. This drops the commuting cost to $7.50/day, or ... EXACTLY THE SAME AMOUNT. There is no cost benefit to taking Metro.

Now, this is a little moot, as I take OmniRide bus service to West Falls Church, and that plus West Falls Church to Ballston (with no parking) makes that option cheaper than either of the above mentioned. I swear by OmniRide and recommend it wholeheartedly.

But, if OmniRide didn't exist, I would eschew Metro altogether. Please note that also, if my company wasn't generous with the $100/mo Metrochek/SmarTrip stipend, it would certainly be *much* cheaper to tell Metro to pound sand.

Finally, if the spots are all taken up at Vienna and one has to incur a $40 ticket for parking violation because there's nowhere else to park, that also skews in favor of the Metro sand-pounding.

I love taking public transportation (OmniRide) into work as it's saved my sanity. But, assuming that there are cost benefits to doing so is not necessarily accurate if you don't live in Fairfax, Arlington or Alexandria.

Hopefully this has been helpful!